Guinea
WFP Aviation established a passenger air service to facilitate the movement of humanitarian personnel and urgently needed non-food items (NFIs) among Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2001. The service was extended to Cote d’Ivoire in 2002. The WFP air operations remain vital to humanitarian operations in the region. Since March 2009, the air service to Cote d’Ivoire has been suspended. Due to funding challenges, the initial fleet of two aircraft was downsized to one in August 2008. UNHAS uses a Let 410 aircraft for this operation. Destinations served from Monrovia include Voinjama, Zwedru, Harper, Conakry, Freetown, Kankan, Kissidougou and Nzerekore. From January to September 2009, about 4,500 passengers and 60 metric tons of cargo were transported in the region using UNHAS flight.
Lack of security-cleared commercial flights in the involved countries, closure of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and the subsequent reduction of DPKO flights (including the ending of service from Freetown to Monrovia and Accra) has resulted in the User Group Committees of each country requesting WFP to extend the services in order to continue providing air services throughout 2009.
